


New Times

by melissfiction



Category: Solar Opposites
Genre: Chaos Theory, Drug Abuse, Electrocution, Emotional Manipulation, First Meetings, M/M, Minor Character Death, Prequel, Self Harm, Time Travel Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-18
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:48:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25354258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melissfiction/pseuds/melissfiction
Summary: The mission objective must be fulfilled at any cost, but it was hard to compete with a genius jerk from the future who was always one step ahead. Korvo has always hated himself, but this was ridiculous.
Relationships: Korvotron "Korvo"/Terry (Solar Opposites), Terri/Terry (Solar Opposites)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 43





	1. First and Last Impressions

**Author's Note:**

> Here's some essential vocabulary: 
> 
> matter stabilizer: Imagine being able to dim/brighten a light. Now image that same concept with the tangibility of matter. 
> 
> "Корво, килл Ван Бо": Literally just "Korvo, kill Vanbo" with the Cyrillic alphabet. Yeah, I'm not a cryptologist. 
> 
> genetic originator: Shlorpian equivalent of a biological parent. 
> 
> 99835: Yumyulack's ID number
> 
> Trampoline-o-lizer: Ray gun that shoots trampolines. 
> 
> 99506: Jesse's ID number
> 
> Public transportation on Shlorp is really fast because of warp pads (think Steven Universe) but there is an unnecessary amount of warp pads for no reason and Terry hates it, so he rebels with an unnecessary amount of parkour.

Korvo started his morning with a sharp electrical shock straight to his nervous system. It was his latest silent alarm clock implant designed to force a proper sleep schedule onto him. It did work, at the cost of not being able to feel his fingertips for hours and setting fire to his bed when he overslept. His intention was to make the shock more subtle and precise--he was trying to trigger the part of the brain that wakes you up. It was supposed to be “ _ bzzt _ , awake!” It was more like “ _ bzzzzt _ , oh shit, oh fuck, ouch that hurts!” __

He sat up immediately. Because he hadn’t yet pinpointed the part of the brain that signals consciousness, he put in a workaround where the alarm would detect him sitting up through motion sensors and stop.  _ He  _ thought it was ingenious, but it still couldn’t beat the convenience of the vibrating phone alarm. 

His holograph tablets were still surrounding him from before he fell asleep. The magenta screens glowed bright enough for Korvo to locate the remote to lower the opacity of the windows to let light in. The morning gradually shined into Korvo’s apartment. Korvo stretched his limbs out. 

Today was the day Shlorp got hit by an asteroid. 

He waved away the magenta projections and went to the bathroom mirror, dodging boxes of his most important possessions. He looked sleep-deprived, as usual. He could take all the tranquilizers and invent all the alarm clocks in the universe, but nothing could distract him from the fact that life as he knew it was going to be gone by 8:08 PM. He turned down the matter stabilizer on his bathroom mirror, which faded the mirror out of existence so he could pop a piece of tooth-cleaning xanthan gum into his mouth. Next to the packet of gum was his prescription pills.  _ Dammit,  _ he forgot to take his pill last night. That must be why he felt an impending sense of doom in the back of his mind. Or maybe that was just because there  _ is  _ impending doom. 

He turned up the matter stabilizer again before he left the bathroom to change into a fresh robe from his closet. As he was buttoning it up, he noticed a crinkling from one of the inner pockets. A note: “Корво, килл Ван Бо.” The first word vaguely resembled his name, but he had no clue what the rest meant. It was clearly his handwriting. On the back: “I love you, Korvy from the past! Make sure you don’t get fat!” That was not his handwriting. Nobody he knew called him “Korvy”. Or, at least nobody  _ alive _ ... What the fuck. 

A small disc tangled in bed sheets began buzzing and ringing. He shoved the note back into his pocket and answered it. It was the academy. A projection of the principal came out of the disk. 

“Hello, Korvo. Your replicant is waiting at the office to be picked up.” The projection shifted to a young Shlorpian looking away with his arms crossed.

It was his replicant, 99385. Korvo wasn’t supposed to meet him until after school. “B-B-But i-it should only be the middle of first period?” He already had three Bachelor’s degrees and a doctorate, but Principal Stul’s condescending, emotionless stare always made him feel so small and juvenile. It was strange being called by his name by Principal Stuls--students were always referred to by their ID number. 

“Haven’t you heard? New calculations predict that the asteroid will be here by 4:32 PM. Maybe sooner.” 

Korvo hated schedule changes. “I will be there.” 

Before he hung up, he caught a brief glimpse of another young Shlorpian entering the office.

* * *

“Terry… Terry, wake up. You’re going to be late.” 

Terry’s blanket only barely covered his mound. He was fast asleep, sprawled out on his bed, completely naked. Beside him, his phone alarm went off for the fifth time that morning. 

Terri shook him again. “Come on, Terry. You’re gonna be late for class  _ again _ .” She was already fully dressed and ready to leave without her lifemate. 

Terry blinked awake, then closed his eyes and rolled over to one side. “Why don’t you ditch? What’s the point in doing  _ anything  _ when our planet is about to be smashed to bits in a couple days?” 

“Terry. That’s  _ today,  _ babe _.” _

He jolted up. “It’s— _ what _ ?” 

Terri turned away. Planetary destruction was today, and she would be gone by 5. She wasn’t scared. Shlorpians did not fear the inevitable. She did not fear the time before she existed and she wouldn’t fear the time after it, either. 

Terry grabbed her hand. “Wait. Don’t leave me.” He pressed her warm, soft hand against his cheek. Actually, he was the one that was leaving her. “One last day together? For old time’s sake?” 

Terri slipped her hand away. “You should be getting ready for the new times.” 

Terry watched her grab her bag off the couch and leave. He shut his eyes tight, trying to burn that last image of her walking away into his mind. He didn’t remember a lot--the date, what DNA is made of, how to take care of a Pupa—but he hoped he could remember that last glimpse of his beautiful lifemate long enough to last a million Shlorps. 

* * *

“ _ You’re  _ my genetic originator?” 99385 scoffed. 

“Yes, that’s what I just said.” 

The replicant looked him up and down. “Ew.” 

Korvo’s smile fell. “What do you mean,  _ ‘ew _ ’? I am the source of your phenotypes!” 

The principal patted him on the back. “He’s your problem, now.” 

Korvo glanced down at his phone. It was only six more hours until he was stuck with this disrespectful, grouchy brat and an idiot of a Pupa Specialist. There was no time to waste. He shook the principal’s hand goodbye. The old man didn’t let go right away. He continued shaking Korvo’s hand long after the proper five-second rule while staring deep into his eyes. 

Korvo cleared his throat. “Y-Yup. All business is done here. I better be, uh, better get going now…” He let his hand go limp, but the principal still wouldn’t let go. 

99385 stood there and watched the awkward exchange. Korvo looked back at his replicant helplessly. 

The principal finally let go. “Oh, sorry. I was just trying to get a glimpse of the future. Safe travels, Korvo.” 

“Y-You too!” Korvo was quick to grab his replicant’s arm and escape the tense atmosphere in the office. It was easier to breathe as soon as the door shut behind them. 

“Why did you say ‘you too’? Principal Stuls isn’t leaving, you know,” the replicant pointed out.

Korvo’s face flushed with embarrassment. Dammit. That was the  _ last  _ impression his old principal would ever have of him. “That was  _ weird.  _ Y-You agree, right? That was really, really weird back there.”

The young Shlorpian shrugged. “Everyone’s been like that to me, lately. It’s kinda cool getting special treatment.” 

It was a short walk to the warp pad that led to the warp pad to downtown, which was another short walk to the warp pad to Korvo’s apartment. A bright pink laser scanned the two when they arrived at the door. Once the facial recognition technology scanned Korvo, there was a click from the lock accompanied by a chime. 

“Welcome, Korvo and replicant.” 

99385 looked around at the boxes stacked and scattered around the apartment. “Damn, you live like this?” 

“I’m  _ packing. _ ” 

“Why don’t you just use a Shrink Ray?” 

“I need to see my stuff to make sure they’re accounted for.” 

“So you don’t have object permanence?” 99385 looked up at the whiteboard of nonsensical equations he hadn’t learned, yet. “Wow, you’re such a nerd! Why do you do so much math? Everything that’s useful has already been calculated already.” He peered into a box next to him. “And why do you have so many spices? There’s, like, ten Zioxo salts in here.” 

Korvo stacked his box of time travel stuff on top of his candle collection box. “Why must you ask so many questions?” 

The young Shlorpian shrugged. “I’m a kid. I wanna know stuff.” 

Korvo supposed that a natural curiosity was a healthy habit he should encourage. 

The replicant wandered towards a box hiding underneath a blanket. “ _ Oh my god _ , is that a box of space dildos?” 

“Wha—no! Th-Those are telescopes!” 

“How come this one vibrates?” There was a click, then a steady buzzing. 

“Why would you  _ touch  _ it if you thought it was a space dildo!” 

* * *

Terry laid in his bed, unmoving, still naked, staring up at the ceiling. There was so much empty space in his apartment without Terri around. She took her toothbrush, her clothes, her bag, her textbooks, her gems, his heart… Oh, he would stay behind and be destroyed alongside his beautiful Terri if he had the chance, but even that was too selfish for him. He had an evacuation partner and a replicant, now. 

He instinctively snoozed his alarm on his phone for the tenth time. Why did he set so many alarms in the first pla—

—Oh,  _ shit, _ oh  _ fuck!  _ He was late to picking up his replicant! He checked his phone. It was already 3:14PM. School had been out for almost an hour, already. He forced himself onto his side, but forgot he was already hanging off the edge of the bed and fell to the floor. He scrambled to throw on a robe and shove his feet into his boots. It was a good thing the asteroid wouldn’t come until 8:08 PM! 

He checked his phone for any message notifications from Terri. There was only a couple: 

“ _ Btw” _

_ “Planetary destruction is gonna be at 4:32 PM instead of 8:08 PM”  _

_ “Maybe sooner” _

He would have to pick up his replicant and go straight to the ship. He snatched the ship keys and Trampoline-o-lizer off the coffee table before he ran out the door. 

And the Pupa! He still had to pick up the Pupa, too!

He backflipped off the railings outside his door and shot the Trampoline-o-lizer at the ground just before he landed. He bounced over a wall and rolled onto the ground before sprinting down the sidewalk until he purposely bumped into a young Shlorpian on a skateboard, knocking him to the ground. 

“Hey!” 

Terry grabbed the skateboard. “You’re gonna die, kid! I need this more than you!” He started riding the skateboard down the hill until he came across a bridge. It was under construction, still, and had yellow tape restricting the area. He rolled his eyes. “Ugh, who starts construction right before planetary destruction?” He ducked under the tape, then started kicking the ground behind him to gain speed for the big leap. A warning sign of space-shark infested waters blurred behind him. 

He did two backflips in the air, narrowly escaping a space-shark jumping out of the water trying to bite him, before landing on the other side of the bridge and continuing his journey. The main street to the academy was blocked off by police cars and an ambulance. There was a terrible car crash that resulted in splatters of blue blood and fire all over two cars. Terry hopped off his skateboard and jumped onto a crate, then over a fence. 

He ran through the park and jumped over a bench and trash can on the way before scaling up a cement wall and shooting his Trampoline-o-lizer again so he could bounce down and over another wall, which finally led to the parking lot outside the cafeteria. He jumped and slid over the top of someone’s car, which had jolted to a stop. 

“What the hell?” the angry driver yelled, then honked twice. 

“Sorry! Hope you die peacefully!” 

Terry zig-zagged through more cars and then cut through the cafeteria. He grabbed a slice of Cydonian pasteurized cyclo-loaf and stuffed it into his mouth before the lunch lady could even react. He burst through the double glass doors and ran through the quad, hopping over lunch tables and trash cans. He bumped into a student and knocked their textbooks and homework to the ground. “Sorry! You’re going to die! Bye!” 

Finally, he made it to the long trophy-lined hallway to the principal’s office. He kicked open the door. “I’m here!” he declared. 

He panted heavily and nearly doubled over from the exhaustion. He hadn’t run this much since Terri accused him of cheating when he came home smelling like an unfamiliar perfume. He was coming from  _ the perfume department _ , not another girl’s house. Sure, he flirted with the sales girl a little, but you can  _ look  _ without  _ buying.  _

Principal Stuls shook his head with disappointment. “You never fail to be tardy, do you, Terry?” 

“H-Hey, Stuls!” Terry struggled to catch his breath. “Missed me, old man? Geez, you look exactly the same! What’s your secret?” 

The old man sighed. “Just take her.” 

Terry laid his eyes on his replicant for the first time. She was half his size and the exact same shade of green as him with a round face and looked up at him with her big, innocent eyes. 

“Oh. My. God!” He grabbed her face. “You’re so cute!” He pinched her soft cheeks. “Aww, my own little replicant!” He picked her up and twirled her around. She was his replicant! She grew from a chunk of  _ his  _ fingertip! She looked utterly terrified, but that’s okay! He would protect her from all harm at any cost. “Do you have a name?” 

“99506,” she answered. 

“Oh, that’s right!  _ I  _ get to name you! Hmm…” This was so much power. He considered naming her after Terri, but that would definitely be too confusing. Maybe Terrey? Terrie sounded cute, too. He gently placed her back on the ground so he could call Terri. He made sure to press the “Record Call” button. 

She picked up on the fifth ring. “ _ You need help naming your replicant, don’t you? _ ” 

Terry loved how she always knew what he was thinking. “What do you think? Terrey with an E-Y, or Terrie with an I-E?” 

“ _ I already know a name. Jesse. _ ” 

Terry tested the feel of the name rolling off his tongue. “Jeh-see…” It was perfect. Everything Terri did was perfect. “Thanks, babe. I love you.” He wanted to say more, but it was already 3:30. 

“I love you, too, Terry. Goodbye.” 

That was it. That was their last words to each other. 

Terry checked for any messages from Korvo. There were five hundred unread messages from Korvo since he muted him. 

Korvo picked up on the first ring. “ _ I already picked up the Pupa. _ ” 

Oh, thank God. “Thanks, Korvy! We’re on our way!”

“...  _ What did you just call me?”  _

* * *

Korvo took out the note from his pocket.  _ I love you, Korvy from the past! Make sure you don’t get fat! _ The explanation was obvious: it was a note from the future from Terry and himself. Apparently, he was going to enter a romantic relationship with Terry in the future. And he was going to gain weight. It is unknown if the two events have any correlation. Still, he could not decipher the code from the front. He could have just written his message in plain Shlorpglish, but of course his future self wanted to make his past life harder. It was probably revenge for all the times he made his future life harder. 

Terry corrected himself. “ _ Sorry _ — _ Korvotron. _ ”

“N-No, I just… Um… I-I just, uh…” The thought of them in a relationship flustered Korvo. He should’ve considered the possibility earlier. They were going to be in close quarters for weeks, months, possibly years, talking for hours, raising their replicants together, getting to know every idiosyncrasy of the other, and inevitably bonding over their shared trauma as refugees. 

His replicant was staring. God, that replicant was so nosy. Korvo thought he would’ve learned his lesson after going through his space dildos. 

“I was just surprised. The last person that called me that was my—”

On the other end, Korvo could hear Terry’s replicant mumbling something. “ _Huh? Oh, yeah, we totally have time to get a smoothie before the planet blows up!_ _Hey, Korvo, do you or your replicant want anything from Shlorp-a-Juice?”_

“You  _ don’t  _ have time for a smoothie!” Korvo yelled. “Just meet me at the ship.” He hung up. 

Korvo and his replicant walked past an iron gate and into a forest, venturing under the cool shade of towering trees. 99385 noticed there was an unusual amount of species not native to the area and a few trees planted too close to each other, some even fused together. He stepped over large roots curling out of the ground like bony fingers. He noticed, too, that some deciduous trees were at different stages of the leaf-falling season and fiery leaves of crimson and orange were scattered amongst unchanging green trees. 

Korvo was not alarmed by the whisperings accompanied by leaf rustles or the echoes of creaking moans. He passed by Shlorpians trimming branches and spraying nutrients and others simply staring up into the foliage. Some trees had plump purple and red-speckled fruits, and others had vibrant, fragrant flowers. He stopped at a lone oak tree at the top of a hill. At the base of the trunk was a gold plaque engraved with the name “Yumyulack”. 

“So there’s no time for a smoothie, but there’s time to take us to some random tree?” 

“Yes.” 

“Uh. Okay, then.” The replicant approached the plaque. “Who’s Yumyulack? Is this, like, some kind of memorial tree?” 

“Y-Yeah, memorial tree, that’s it...” Korvo decided against telling his replicant what these trees really were. “Yumyulack was my genetic originator.” 

“But I thought Shlorpians never got to meet their replicants unless they were sent on a mission.” 

Korvo nodded. “That law was implemented during my generation because they found a decrease in productivity in genetic originators too attached to their replicants.” He remembered that day. His genetic originator was arrested and put on compliance fluids. Visits and calls were limited. He was threatened with the same fate if he didn’t compensate for his genetic originator’s inactivity. 

His replicant traced his finger down flakes of bark. He squinted. He could almost make out two lopsided eyes looking down at him. 

“Hello,” a voice whispered.

“What the—” He flinched backwards, tripping over a root that he swore wasn’t there before. When he looked up again, he couldn’t find the eyes anymore. 

Korvo helped him up. “Let’s go.” 

* * *

Terry and Jesse walked up to the ship with two smoothies each in their hands. 

“What’s up, team?” Terry handed the sunshine-first-kiss-romanceberry smoothie to Korvo and the lollipops-funny joke-amity smoothie to Korvo’s replicant. 

“It’s already 4:00! We were  _ supposed  _ to leave fifteen minutes ago!” Korvo angrily sipped at his smoothie. He hadn’t even been able to move his boxes into the ship, yet, because Terry was the one with the keys. 

Terry looked around at all the boxes. “Korvo, why did you bring so much stuff?” 

“Why didn’t  _ you  _ bring anything?” 

Terry shrugged. “I don’t have anything important.” He preferred not to take any reminders of his past with him. All he wanted to think about from now on was how to get his cute little replicant to open up to him more. He unlocked the ship with two high-pitched beeps. The ramp opened up. Before Terry picked up the nearest box, he read the label off of it. “‘Replicant Supplies’?” 

“Wait,” Korvo said, “before I forget…” He rummaged through the box until he found a set of clothes. He handed it to his replicant. “Here, put this on.” 

99835 took one look at the beige vest and pushed it away. “ _ Ew,  _ no. I’d rather stay behind and blow up.” In layman’s terms, he would describe the outfit as “uggo barfo”. 

Korvo forcefully pushed the outfit into his replicant’s hands. “This is an autopilot  _ kill  _ vest designed to flawlessly  _ kill  _ anyone with the intent to harm you.” He spent 10 years designing it. This decision was not up for debate—it was for his replicant’s own good. 

Beside him, Terry struggled to conceal a giggle. Korvo snapped his attention over to his evacuation partner. “What’s so funny!” he yelled. 

“Sorry!” Terry regained his composure. He wasn’t trying to laugh  _ at _ Korvo. He just thought it was cute seeing his evacuation partner put so much concern into protecting his replicant. He would’ve done the same, except not with such an ugly outfit. “Just… how long, exactly, have you been waiting and preparing for this day?” 

Korvo looked down at the Replicant Supplies box. “My entire life.” He thought of the hours he spent writing lab reports, the hundreds of assignments due at every second, the scramble to find the cures to diseases last minute for his pathology classes, and the anxiety that bubbled in his chest when he checked his grades, knowing that every slip up would be recorded as proof that he was defective and charge him with noncompliance. He used to lie awake in bed, hiding under the blankets, and chanting his nightly mantra “don’t think about death”. He never even had the privilege to pursue frivolous hobbies in creativity. 

He looked over at another box, unlabelled, filled with a lifetime’s worth of prescription pills for his chronic suffering. 

Terry, of course, didn’t notice. Korvo envied that. He wondered if that was why he would one day fall in love with Terry: to fill the gaping void in his heart that yearned for blissful ignorance. That’s assuming their future selves’ actions didn’t cause a butterfly effect that changed the course of this time stream drastically. 

“Ahaha, that’s funny! I almost overslept this morning because I thought planetary destruction was on Friday.” 

Korvo realized there was no way to find out whether he would actually fall in love with Terry in this time stream, or not. All he knew was that it happened in another one. 

“Just wear it, kid!” Terry told 99835. “It’s not that bad!” 

Korvo’s replicant rolled his eyes. “Ugh... Fine.” He reluctantly obeyed Terry without any more argument. 

Terry’s replicant peeked out from behind Terry. It was Korvo’s first time noticing her presence. She spoke in a small, soft voice, as if she was afraid the asteroid would find them sooner if she wasn’t careful. “Do I have to wear one of those, too?” 

Terry was blunt. “Hell no, that shit’s ugly AF.” 

“ _ TERRY.  _ That’s my life’s work. Do you know how hard it was to fine tune something as vague as the intent to kill? I did enough gel electrophoresis to last 100 Shlorps and—” 

“Dude, IDC. I’d never let my little Jesse wear a murder suit.” 

“I—Wait, you named your replicant?” Korvo looked down at Jesse. “Aren’t you afraid of getting attached?” 

Terry patted Jesse’s head affectionately. “Why would I be afraid?” 

That old oak tree flashed into Korvo’s mind. He thought of all the times  _ he  _ was afraid, to simply call his genetic originator and tell him that he missed him. He was only able to get the words out after it was too late. “Wh-Whatever… Just help me carry my stuff inside.” He crouched down to pick up a stack of boxes. 

Terry picked up a particularly heavy box. He looked at the label. It was “Literally Just a Box of Rocks”. “You couldn’t have used a shrink ray?” 

“That’s what  _ I  _ said!” 99385 scoffed. 

“I need to know where my stuff is!” Korvo said defensively.

* * *

Korvo watched their planet blow up from the rear-view mirror. The broken chunks got smaller and smaller as they flew away. Their ship’s accelerators were on full blast to make sure they weren’t caught in the explosion. 

“... Yumyulack,” Korvo blurts out, hugging the Pupa’s warm body close to himself. He can’t stop thinking about that old tree. He’s so afraid. The anxious pounding in his chest feels like enough to give him a heart attack. He would never see that old tree again—that old, wise, forgiving oak tree. He might never see any oak tree ever again.

Terry stretched out one of his arms while the other stayed steady on the steering wheel. “What?”

“I’m naming my replicant ‘Yumyulack’.”

Yumyulack itched under his neck collar. He wished that of all the calculations Korvo performed, he would’ve at least had the foresight to make the vest out of something  _ not  _ itchy. “Okay, cool.” For once, he didn’t question his genetic originator. 

Terry smiled. “That’s a great name, Korvo.”

Terry continued flying their ship in silence until it was broken again by his phone alarm. He took his phone out of his pocket. “Why would I set an alarm for 4:42—oh shit... Oh, fuck!” The phone alarm was labelled  _ Hope you didn’t forget about Vanbo _ . “We forgot Vanbo!” 

Korvo took out the note from the future.  _ Корво, килл Ван Бо _ . He focused on the letters he could recognize.  _ Korvo, k--- Bah Bo.  _ Could it be…  _ Korvo, kill Vanbo _ ? But he hadn’t even talked to Vanbo since he was assigned to their team just a few days ago. 

Korvo hoped that whatever time stream they were in was a good one. 

  
  



	2. Chaos Theory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korvo and Yumyulack propose their theory of who's sabotaging their mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Vocabulary: 
> 
> 31432: Korvo's ID number
> 
> 31287: Terri's ID number
> 
> 31827: Terry's ID number (not mentioned in fic) 
> 
> Alzaproxe: Shlorpian equivalent of Alprazolam, generic for Xanax, used to treat the symptoms of anxiety, panic disorder, and anxiety associated with depression. Same properties. Notable side effect: powerful sedative that kicks in within the hour. Also notable is that Korvo has a really high dosage prescribed to him. "for chronic suffering" is a reference to the medication in vewn's animation "Twins in Paradise". 
> 
> Xanaxapine: Xanax. (see above) 
> 
> Shlorpipedia: Shlorpian government's Wikipedia that has all the official records of every Shlorpian. Different levels of access to records vary based on your occupation. Every Shlorpian is supposed to be able to see their own article at the very least. 
> 
> pinky promise: It's not actually a sacred oath in Shlorpian culture. Korvo and Terry just think very highly of it.
> 
> Also Pupa's just sleeping in a crib. That lil slug isn't important rn

Korvo started his morning with a sharp electrical shock straight to his nervous system. It jolted him out of his seat and onto the floor. His fingers were already numb. His heart rate was accelerating. The shocking wouldn’t stop, even when he stood up. He fell to his knees. The motion sensors couldn’t recognize that he was awake because he had fallen asleep sitting up. 

He staggered over to his box of kitchen utensils and rummaged through until he found a knife. His limbs convulsed as another shock at a higher voltage coursed through his nervous system, dropping the knife. He shakily picked it back up again and took a deep breath before reaching behind himself to slit the back of his neck. He screamed out in pain.  _ Shit, _ that  _ fucking  _ hurt! 

Jesse screamed, too, in horror. It was the sound of her scream that actually woke Terry up. 

“Korvotron, holy shit!” Terry rushed to Korvo’s side and grabbed the knife. He flinched away at the bite of another electrical shock. The knife splashed into the puddle of blue blood. “Ouch! What the hell was that?” 

“T-T-Terry… I can’t—I can’t h-handle this anymore.” He groaned as he forced his fingers into the sloppy incision and felt around the squishy flesh until he located the implant on cervical vertebrae C3. It was difficult with numbed fingers, but he was able to scratch the implant out of place and remove it. He panted heavily. Blood continued gushing out of him. He picked up the knife and pressed the button at the bottom of the shaft, activating the hot blade. He pressed the red hot blade against his wound and cauterized it with another scream. “Get the first aid kit!” he yelled. 

Terry rushed towards the back of the ship. “Uh…” He had no clue where it was. He opened up cabinets of Shlorpian plant species and drawers of spare blankets. 

“The glove compartment! It’s in the glove compartment!” 

Terry ran to the glove compartment and got the first aid kit. He found the canister of healing goo, opened it up, and quickly went to slap a generous amount on the back of Korvo’s neck. The goo slowly sizzled as it evaporated, leaving behind a freshly healed patch without even the faintest trace of a scar. 

Terry placed his hand on Korvo’s shoulder. “Hey. Do you wanna, maybe, talk?” 

Korvo slapped his hand away and reached into his pocket for his orange bottle of pills. He downed a handful, then promptly passed out. 

He dreamt that he was swinging on the branch of an oak tree that loved him and missed him and would never leave him. Everything glowed cyan and magenta and was warm like a hug that enveloped his entire soul. He swung high enough into the heavens to see the entire planet of Shlorp below him, then swung backwards into the safety of kind green leaves and caring bark. It was the deepest sleep he’s had since that awful day when candy stopped tasting sweet. 

He slept through Jesse’s crying, through Yumyulack’s questions, and through Terry picking him up and placing him on a pull-out bed. Without the alarm implant, he had no external stimulus urging him to wake up. And without Shlorp’s authoritarian government, he had no more threats to cower from. He wanted to swing into the heavens forever. 

So when he did wake up, he finished the other half of his pill bottle and passed out again. 

* * *

16 hours have passed.

Terry watched the rise and fall of Korvo’s chest through the rear view mirror. He wasn’t sure what had gotten into his evacuation partner. Literally. Korvo didn’t explain what that implant from the back of his neck was doing there. Terry was officially the most competent Shlorpian in the room and it was a disaster. He was only supposed to be the Pupa Specialist. 

He looked through his last conversation with Terri, before her warnings of accelerated planetary destruction. She was complaining about how the final review for her math class felt too rushed. He could still hear her voice.  _ I already know a name. Jesse.  _

He shifted his rear view mirror to Jesse and waved hello at her. She smiled back at him.

Beside her, Yumyulack was tinkering with the implant from Korvo’s neck. With his small fingers and a tiny screwdriver, he was able to pry open the chip and poke at the miniscule wires. A small  _ bzzt _ was triggered when he prodded a red wire. “Ouch.” He prodded it again. “Ouch.” And again. “Ouch!” It was obvious, now, that the shock was intentional. “Why would anyone put a shock-chip inside their body?” He squinted at a small LED display with numbers on it. It was the time. He had a theory. “Um, Terry, do you know what kind of person Korvotron is?” 

“I know just as much as you do, kid,” Terry answered. He could only surmise that Korvo was some obsessive compulsive science freak who had no idea how to take care of himself but was controlling of others to compensate. “But I do have access to all your guys’ personal, academic, and health records.” He pulled up a holographic magenta tablet projection and quickly swiped to Shlorpipedia. He entered his login credentials, then searched for Korvo’s ID number: 31432 with a dramatic hit of the enter key from his pinky. 

The word “RESTRICTED” in red flashed onto the screen along with three flat beeps. 

Terry refreshed the page, only to get the same three beeps. 

He tried again for the third time, re-entering Korvo’s ID number slowly, but again, he got the same three beeps. 

“Why is his information restricted?” Yumyulack asked. 

“I don’t know,” Terry answered, “It wasn’t like that yesterday.” He tried looking up Terri’s number, 31287, and was quickly directed to her article. He recognized her picture as the same one from her driver’s license. Underneath, he saw her exact time and date of death: May 8th, 2020 at 4:32 PM. Terry was surprised to see her information published so soon, even though he already knew all deceased Shlorpians’ records became public domain post mortem for all survivors to see. She was another number in the system, now. A collection of pixels on a website. 

“She’s pretty,” Jesse said. 

“She was.” Terry closed the tab and looked up Jesse’s ID number, 99506. A pop-up window asked him to enter administration credentials to access her account. He pressed his pointer finger onto a small scanning pad, then was quickly granted administration access. Her article was short. She was an honor roll student, had no disciplinary infractions, no pre-existing health conditions, and four excused absences at the academy cleared by her homeroom teacher. Terry saw that her article already had her given name attached to it. Creepy. “I don’t get it. I  _ should _ have access to Korvo’s information.” 

“Could he have set it to ‘private’?” Yumyulack suggested. 

“No, our database doesn’t work like that. Every team leader has unlimited access to their team members’ records.” Korvo was technically the team leader, but he asked Terry to go to team leader orientation for him because he was busy preparing for the mission. Terry didn’t tell Korvo that Korvo technically relinquished the position to him. He would give the team leader position back… when Korvo notices and demands it back. 

Yumyulack looked down at the implant in his palm. “So we don’t know  _ anything  _ about one of our own team members.” He didn’t mention that he knew Korvo’s genetic originator was a criminal charged with noncompliance. 

“Pfft, you kids and your over-dependence on technology!” Terry stood up from his chair and walked towards one of Korvo’s many boxes of prized possessions. “We just need to figure out the old-fashioned way.” 

Yumyulack smirked. He made up his mind: Terry was awesome. 

* * *

Korvo was the most mundane, cookie cutter, passion-lacking, propagandized, rules-loving Shlorpian that Terry has ever invaded the privacy of. Half of the boxes Terry dug through were ship repair manuals. A good chunk was old scrap parts and crystals, and the rest were assorted collections: old receipts and used gift cards, oak tree leaves and soil, chess boards with mix-matched pieces, scented hand sanitizers, half-used superglue bottles, and it seemed like he also had an archive of every graded assignment he completed since the academy. 

“Alright. So we know that Korvotron is a hoarder, now,” Terry announced. “Did you two find anything interesting besides the space dildos?” 

Yumyulack was sitting cross legged in a circle of lab reports, as if he was trying to summon the god of chemistry. A plus, A plus, A plus, A plus, A plus—

“He’s… He’s a genius!” Yumyulack sifted through more perfect scores. He wasn’t one to judge someone’s intelligence off their grades, being a self-proclaimed scientist and bounty hunter with a 1.7 GPA, but this was a different story. “How is this even possible? Why didn’t  _ I  _ get the genius genes?” 

In a faraway corner, Jesse stood on her tippy toes to peer into a box on a shelf labelled “Asghffdbjkfna”. It was a pile of red pens. “More junk.” 

There was a groan from Korvo. Jesse froze. Yumyulack stuffed the lab reports back into the box as fast as he could. Terry watched Korvo instinctively reach for the empty pill bottle at his side. Suddenly, he sat up, clutching at the back of his neck. He squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself for a shock that never came. He opened them again after remembering the implant was gone. All that remained was a dull throbbing in the back of his head and a cold wave of numbness in his neck and fingertips. 

He looked over to Yumyulack, who was at Jesse’s side with his arm over her shoulders. Both replicants were faced away from him and conversing about something he couldn’t make out over the blood rushing through his auditory canals. He hopped down from the pull-out bed and half-sleep walked towards the unlabelled box next to Terry, which was the one box Terry hadn’t searched through yet, and retrieved a fresh prescription bottle. 

Terry put on a big smile for him and spoke slowly. “Kor-vuh- _ tron! _ Korvo! Can I call you Korvo?” 

Still dazed, Korvo nodded. 

“Not to alarm you or anything, but I think something is wrong with the, uh, th-the synthesized, uh, quantum… slammer… -a-lizer.” 

“You mean th-the psionic quantum solarizer?” 

“Haha, yup! That’s it!” He guides Korvo towards the computer lab portion of the ship. “You gotta check it out, Korvo, I think it’s solarizing backwards!” 

“... Wait, what?” 

The door closed in on itself and locked behind them. 

* * *

“There’s no such thing as solarizing backwards.” Korvo pushed down on the pill bottle lid and twisted, but the fresh bottles were always hard to open. His shaky hands didn’t help. “Are you trying to say that the main diffraction pattern won’t work?”

Terry grabbed Korvo’s wrist and yanked the prescription bottle away. He read the label aloud. “‘Alzaproxe. 20 milligram tablet. Generic for: Xanaxapine. Take 1 tablet by mouth everyday at bedtime for chronic suffering.’” 

“Oh, g-good for you, Terry! You noticed that I’ve, th-that I’m an overmedicated, overdosing, over-obsessed freak! I’m a d-d-d…” Korvo struggled to choke the word out. “...  _ defect! _ ” His voice cracked. “I-I-I need to be locked up, don’t I? Go ahead! I’m not attached!” 

By the end of his rant, he was breathing heavily and shaking. The catharsis was relieving. He felt a swell of double-bladed pride and disgrace for beating Terry to the punch. He never needed anyone to tell him he was bad. He’s lived his entire life with the assumption. 

Terry didn’t let the silence linger. “What? No?” He unscrewed the bottle for him and shook out a couple, just a  _ couple _ , of pills for Korvo and placed them into Korvo’s palm. “I just wanted to ask why your records are restricted.” 

“... Oh.” 

Now Korvo was just embarrassed. 

He swallowed the pills, then sat at the nearest computer and logged into Shlorpipedia. He searched for himself, then froze at the pop-up window asking for administration credentials. He has never seen that pop-up, before. “That was not there yesterday.” Every Shlorpian had access to their own records, but they couldn’t change viewing permissions. He pressed his thumb to the small scanning pad, but the pop-up window only flashed red and denied him. 

Terry pressed his finger onto the scanning pad, granting them access to a new screen with the same result from earlier: RESTRICTED,  _ beep beep beep.  _

Terry refreshed the page—beep beep beep. And again—beep beep beep. And again—beep beep beep. 

Korvo slapped Terry’s hand. “Stop that.” He clicked with two-fingers on the trackpad, selected Inspect Element from the drop-down menu, and inserted a few lines of code that was usually enough to un-blur the answer on subscription-based homework answer websites. There was no effect. “I don’t know.” He did have a theory, though. 

Korvo took in a deep breath. 

“Can I trust you, Terry?” 

* * *

Yumyulack took his arm off of Jesse. 

“Jesse. I need to trust you with something.” 

She stared back at him. 

“Is that a yes or no?” Yumyulack snapped. “Can I trust you?” 

She nodded. 

“Oh my god. Are you mute, or somethi—” 

“— _ Yes!  _ Okay! You can trust me, already, weirdo!” 

Yumyulack was relieved to feel real, Shlorpian emotion out of her. “Good.” He looked over his shoulder at the door just to make sure it was closed, then whispered, “I think Korvo’s trying to sabotage the mission.” 

Jesse pondered the idea for a brief moment. “Um. What’s the mission, again?” 

To Yumyulack, that kind of response was worse than rejection. “Oh my God, Jesse! You’re so stupid! How do you not know what the mission is!” 

She shoved him. “Shut up! It’s not my fault that Terry never told me.” 

Yumyulack relented. That did sound like something that would slip Terry’s mind. “When the Pupa reaches maturity, it’ll evolve into its true form, one that’ll destroy and rebuild the planet in the image of the homeworld using data stored in its DNA. There! All caught up, now?” 

“Yes, Yumyulack. And thank you.” 

Yumyulack blushed. It’s not like he was trying to be nice to her. He just needed an ally on his side if he was going to be pit against his own genius genetic originator. She was such an idiot. As if a “thank you” could actually make someone more amicable towards you! “Korvo has his own agenda. For revenge!” 

Jesse gasped. “Revenge?” 

“Revenge against Shlorp! Right before we left, he took me to his genetic originator’s memorial tree and he told me that his genetic originator was a  _ criminal  _ arrested for low productivity. He said his genetic originator, Yumyulack the First, got ‘too attached’ to him.” 

“Oh no!” Jesse cried. “Poor Korvo!” 

“No,  _ screw _ Korvo!” He wildly gesticulated. “He’s trying to sabotage us! Did you notice how he just ‘forgot’ about Vanbo?” 

“Terry forgot Vanbo, too, though.” 

“But Terry actually  _ cared _ when he realized it. Korvo didn’t! Korvo must have  _ killed  _ Vanbo!” 

“No  _ way! _ ” 

“And that must be why Korvo’s information is restricted. Because if it happened on Shlorp, then it would be recorded on Shlorpipedia!” 

“That makes so much sense… Oh my god…” 

“Oh, but that’s not all!” He took out Korvo’s implant from his pocket and held it up for Jesse to see. “Think about it. Why would someone have a shock-chip inside of them? It’s because the government implanted it into him to retrain his disobedience! And look at the clock inside! Why would there be a clock inside? Because this chip is a surveillance device that the government used to track all of Korvo’s actions and update it instantly to Shlorpipedia!”

Jesse’s mind was blown. “But… But what’s the point in sabotaging our mission? There’s like fifty other ships out there with the same mission, too.” 

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s a double agent with the Galactic Federation. Whatever he’s planning, we need to stop him. He’s dangerous.” 

* * *

“Sure! Why not!” Terry says gleefully. 

Terry’s nonchalance irritated Korvo. “Terry. Can I really, really,  _ really _ trust you?” 

“Totally.” 

Korvo couldn’t buy that if Terry wasn’t going to take this seriously. “Pinky promise?” 

It finally dawned on Terry that Korvo was about to entrust him with a grave secret. There was no bond more sacred than the pinky promise. He stuck his right hand pinky out, then they recited the ancient oath together: 

**“ _Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye_.” **

Pinkies clasped, they looked deep into each other’s eyes. Neither could detect a trace of malice from the other. For now. Korvo was the first to break it off. He shoved the note from their future selves into Terry’s face. 

“Is this handwriting familiar?” Korvo asked. 

Terry recognized the first three words of the note immediately as his own handwriting. He used to pass love notes to Terri all the time during class, even though Terri kept telling him that texting was more discreet. He thought it was romantic. The rest, he had no memory of writing, but he could tell from the left slant and the falling curve the sentences were on that it could only be his. It couldn’t have been forged. “That’s me, alright.” He always got an automatic ten points off on all his assignments for not being able to write upright and straight. 

“I think our mission is being sabotaged. By us.” 

“From the future?” 

“Correct.” 

Terry looked down at the note. “We’re doomed. Our timeline is doomed.” He ripped the note in half. “I don’t know about you, Korvotron, but I know myself. If I had the chance to change the past, I would’ve saved Terri.” 

“You would save yourself? From what?” 

“No, what the hell? I’m Terr **_y_ ** . Terr **_i_ ** _ ,  _ with an I, was my lifemate.” He specifically pronounced his name with a longer vowel than Terri’s to differentiate themselves. “Whatever future this is from is a screwed up one. No offense.” 

“I will take offense at my own discretion.” Korvo took the two halves of the note from Terry, then flipped both over. “This side is a code from myself. Through meticulous, inductive inference, I have concluded that it says—” 

“‘Korvo, kill Vanbo.’” Terry held the pieces up to the light, where faint watermarks of the true message revealed themselves. “Korvo, you killed Vanbo?” 

Oh. Invisible ink: the oldest trick in the book. Korvo didn’t understand the point of the gibberish code if the answer was written more plainly in invisible ink, but it felt like a dumb Korvo-esque mistake he would definitely make. 

Korvo forced his thoughts back on the topic. “Our future selves must’ve gotten to him first. That’s why my Shlorpipedia article is restricted. And if I’m correct, yours should be, too.” He proved his point by looking up Terry’s ID number. Terry scanned his ring finger again when prompted. The same result came back: RESTRICTED, beep beep beep. 

Terry shut down the projections with a wave of his hand. “We can still change the future, right?” He couldn’t imagine a future where he chose Korvo over Terri. He and Terri were academy sweethearts. They were lifemates for decades. “I mean, there’s no such thing as destiny.” 

“There’s no way to find out. Our technology only allows us to travel to the past. Even actions trying to change our fate may actually be instrumental in determining our fate.” He thought of what Terry just said about knowing himself. “The future is too large of a variable, but we do know one major certainty about this specific future: we fall in love. So, all we need to do is  _ not  _ fall in love to avoid that timeline.”

Terry remembered when he first met Terri. It was a bit like their current situation, but without all the death: he was assigned to the same project with a studious, top 10 student who was luckily competent enough for the both of them. He never expected to fall in love with her at the time. “No… I hate to say it, but I’m wrong. I could fall in love with you.” 

Korvo blushed. “W-Wh-Wh-What?” 

“You’re a bossy, neurotic, pill-popping hoarder-nerd…” 

Korvo couldn’t object to any of those allegations. 

“... but I can tell you care more than you want to. I like that you always respond right away, even at 3 AM. I think your stutter is cute, and when you do that dorky laugh it just makes the joke ten times funnier.” Terry slowly closed the gap between them as he spoke. With every step he took forward, Korvo took one backwards.“I like the way you look when you’re focused. It makes me want to put that focus on me. Did you know that you drool when you sleep? And you’ve got great taste in sex toys. Oh, and how can I forget how cute you look when you’re angry? You try so hard to be in control, but it’s too easy to overwhelm you. You should really see the look on your face right now—it’s adorable.” 

Terry backed Korvo against a wall. He lightly brushed Korvo’s lips with the back of his knuckles. Korvo looked away, but Terry tilted his face up. 

“I don’t think we get to choose who we fall in love with,” Terry said softly. “But I think I could break your heart. 

Logic couldn’t explain what happened in between those words and Korvo meeting Terry’s lips for his first kiss. He couldn’t think. The pills were kicking in. He felt hot and dizzy and numb to the taboo of kissing the one person he literally just told himself  _ not _ to fall in love with. It was hard to know right from wrong with Terry’s hand on the small of his back and the other hand cradling his face. 

Korvo did not know himself. He didn’t realize how weak he was to the temptation of Terry’s gentle caresses. He didn’t notice the breathy moans yearning out of his throat. He didn’t think he was so easy to tame. He couldn’t even stop himself from kissing Terry back, confused and dazed and desperate for more. He wanted this nonsensical kiss to last forever. 

It was so absurd. He couldn’t have foreseen that the butterfly flaps of the ripped note from the future would cause this hurricane of emotions inside of him. 

So how the hell could he compete with his all-knowing future self? 


	3. The Password

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Terry tries to figure out the override password that his future self changed. Jesse and Yumyulack get closer to the truth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fat-shaming warning for this chapter :( But also lots of kissing! 
> 
> Here are the rules for the plot: 
> 
> \- Future Korvo and Terry will always be one step ahead of Present Korvo and Terry  
> \- Present Korvo and Terry will always be one step ahead of Yumyulack and Jesse

The second Terry and Korvo emerged from the computer lab, Yumyulack knew he lost Terry as an ally. Korvo’s robe, usually buttoned properly with the collar popped up to hide as much of his face as possible, was disheveled and misbuttoned. That absentminded, flustered look in his eyes was the most damning piece of evidence. But at least Korvo had the decency to be ashamed of himself. Terry strut out of the lab with a smug, secretive smirk. He knew exactly what he did and he didn’t care who else knew too. 

They sat down at their seats as if it wasn’t obvious what they just did. Yumyulack shared a knowing look with Jesse before continuing the game she was trying to teach him. “This isn’t how you bake a cake. Why would you pat it? That’s totally unsanitary.” He slowly clapped his right hand to Jesse's. 

“And then you do the same thing with your other hand… No, your other hand. No, you do the  _ same  _ thing, but just with the other hand on a different side.” This game was supposed to be for saplings and Yumyulack was awful at it. She grabbed his wrists and puppeteered his hands to the correct motions. “Like that.” 

Terry was smiling and watching them from the rear-view mirror. Jesse waved at him to signal to Yumyulack that they were being watched. Yumyulack repositioned himself in front of Jesse with his back turned to Terry. 

“Jesse. _Jesse,_ ” he whispered. He continued their clapping game but had no rhythm or timing. “Did they just—” 

Jesse tried to clap Yumyulack’s hand, but he missed. “They totally did, but—”

“ _ Why? _ ” 

Yumyulack accidentally hit Jesse’s face. In a regular volume, she told him, “You are so bad at this.” 

“I’d be ashamed to be good!” he scoffed. “This is a stupid game. It’s my turn to teach you something.” 

“Is it the stupid one where you stab between your fingers with a knife—” 

“It’s the ultimate test of precision!” While he started poking between his fingers with a screwdriver from his pocket, he whispered to ask her, “Do you think they’re onto us?”

Jesse shook her head. “They’re definitely working together, though.” 

Yumyulack was disappointed in their adults. They had literally just met less than a week ago, and they were already in some kind of romantic entanglement! He couldn’t believe how illogical adults could be—Terry hardly knew Korvo. He didn’t even have access to Korvo’s Shlorpipedia article! How was their relationship supposed to last with such a shitty foundation and—

“Oh, crap!” He had an idea. Also, he just stabbed himself. 

“I’ll get the first aid kit.” 

Yumyulack and Jesse were going to break up Terry and Korvo. 

* * *

Korvo fell asleep as soon as his butt reached the safety of his chair. Yumyulack tired out eventually and retired to a pull-out bed. Jesse followed shortly after into her own pull-out bed. Pupa was asleep the whole time in its padded crib. That left Terry as the last one awake, slouched in the driver’s seat, watching the stars twinkle against the void of the black sky. 

Shlorpians called the dark sky full of stars the “night sky”, revealed after a productive day under their sun. Terry now realized how funny that was, to think of brightness as the default. Out of the comfort of Shlorp’s atmosphere, everything was “night”. It was actually 6 AM, Shlorpian time, but that was impossible to tell from the infinite blackness stretched out before them. 

Terry had no clue where they were going, or what they were specifically looking for. That was supposed to be Korvo’s job. Team leader orientation told him that it could take years to find a suitable planet. Their cycle was going to be the hardest with the Galactic Federation constantly claiming more territories. They were told to find somewhere unclaimed, unpopulated, and unprotected. Shlorpians were not conquerors. 

Dammit. It was so boring on the ship. All they had was boxes of Korvo’s useless junk and a bunch of wacky sci-fi ray guns. There wasn’t even Wifi. Terry only had access to Shlorpipedia and a backup folder of his and Terri’s nudes. He wanted to sleep, but he was too used to sleeping with his lifemate. He used to stay up for hours waiting for her when she worked late hours researching at her lab. 

He got up and walked over to Korvo. He reached into Korvo’s pocket. He just wanted  _ one  _ little dose of whatever Korvo was on. From the way Korvo drooled, it looked like some good shit. Sharing is caring. He gently slipped his hand deeper and deeper, until he heard the rattle of pills against the plastic bottle. Jackpot. 

Korvo shifted in his seat. Terry immediately withdrew his hand. 

“H-Huh? Terry?” He woke up to Terry towering over him. “What are you doing?” 

Terry came clean. “I can’t sleep. Gimme some of your pills.” 

“These are my  _ antidepressants _ to  _ anti-depress  _ me because I have  _ depression _ .” 

“Oh c’mon, you’ve been taking like twenty a day.” Terry used to be on Riterall, but he always shared it. For a price, of course. 

“Because I’m  _ depressed _ with  _ depression _ .” 

Terry pouted. “Can we cuddle?” 

“N-N-N-No! S-Stop trying to make me fall in love with you!” No way was Korvo going to be willingly seduced for the sole purpose of getting his heart broken. 

Unfortunately for him, Korvo’s stutter made it obvious that Terry’s plan was working. It only egged him on. He softened his tone. “What if I kissed you again?” 

Korvo went silent. 

“Is that a yes?” 

Korvo couldn’t bring himself to say no. 

“Blink twice for yes, once for no. Or three times for maybe.” 

Korvo blinked twice. 

“Wait. I forgot which one was ‘yes’. Was that a yes?” 

Korvo nodded. 

Terry leaned over Korvo with both of his hands grasping the arms of Korvo’s seat. He kissed him gently this time, fondly, the way he would’ve kissed Terri on their last day together if she hadn’t insisted on leaving him so quickly. His tongue traced the tip of Korvo’s. He wanted to live a vicarious alternate ending through this kiss. He wanted to repent. He tilted his head further and deepened the kiss.

Submission was always a relief to Korvo. He was so tired of the arbitrary rules and meaningless values he had to somersault his way through to survive. Being kissed by Terry felt right. Korvo had never asked himself what felt right, before. This filthy lust was probably the closest Korvo has ever been to being in love with someone, and it wasn’t even close.

Terry’s hand wandered back to Korvo’s pocket. Korvo pulled away. 

“No.” 

“Just one?” 

Korvo stood up. “I’m going to analyze some cross-dimensional interstellar coordination maps.” He walked over to the driver’s seat and sat himself down. He opened up the Launchpad, then swiped right a few times until he found Shlorgle Maps. The app opened a 3D projection of their current whereabouts with a few sprinkles of stars in the background. They were blasting through Fuckass, Nowhere. The closest planet in this star belt was in the hive mind territories. Typical progress for their first week. “Wait a second.” He glanced between the pink projection and the dark view out of their windshield. “Aisha. Enable 360 view of surroundings.” 

A robotic, feminine voice boomed throughout the ship: “360 view enabled.” It startled the replicants out of their slumber. 

“Shit, shit, shit—lower volume by 80%!” 

In a much softer voice, the ship responded, “Volume lowered.” 

The dim fluorescent lights flashed pink, then went black. A hyper-realistic image of their surroundings was projected all around them, from the ceiling to the floor. Korvo stood up from his seat, eyes widened. “Th-This can’t be!”

He wandered around the ship, counting every glimmer and sparkle of a distant star or planet or moon that he could find. “Three hundred seventy-two… Five hundred and three… One thousand six hundred twenty eight…” 

Yumyulack rubbed his eyes. “We’re going to die, aren’t we?” 

“We’re going to  _ die _ ?” Jesse cried. She was fully awake, now.

Korvo shook his head. “N-No! No, we’re not in any mortal danger,” he assured the replicants. “But we’re  _ extremely _ off-course.” He turned to Terry. “What did you do? What did you mess with?”

“Don’t look at me! I just put the ship on auto-pilot while  _ you  _ were slacking off!” 

The stars around them glitched into random positions. The ship’s voice commented that she was recalculating.

Korvo grabbed Terry by his neck collar and shook him. “No, y-y-you definitely messed with something! I know it!” There was no other explanation for why they were quadrants away from the coordinates he programmed in before they left. Unless… 

The projection flickered pink. 

“You don’t know  _ shit, _ ” Terry hissed. 

Their eyes were locked in a tense, glaring tango for dominance. Yumyulack was ecstatic. It was all according to plan... Kind of. Their stupid romantic entanglement hadn’t even lasted a full 24 hours. He wasn’t surprised. These were two volatile, alpha-plant invasive weeds competing for the same niche. Both thought they were the predator, but really, they were prey to the toxicity of power struggles. This fate was inevita—

Korvo pulled Terry into a rough, passionate, hate-fueled kiss. The ship’s lights were frozen on a bright, oversaturated magenta. 

—Never mind. 

There was tongue.  _ So  _ much of it that Yumyulack had to cover Jesse’s eyes. Korvo wrapped his arms around Terry’s neck as he curled backwards into the kiss. Terry’s hands held onto Korvo’s waist. Their tongues lapped and swirled and slobbered over each other, all the while keeping intense eye contact. 

“Get a room!  _ Please! _ ” Yumyulack begged. This was his first time using the P-word.

Terry’s hands wandered lower as he sucked on Korvo’s tongue. He swallowed down Korvo’s moans and hot, needy gasps for more. This was beyond reason. Maybe that proved a higher form of genius, one that needed no explanation. They were at the mercy of fallacy. Korvo had already lost the war. He  _ was _ attached, and the burden of it sank him deeper into a cleansing flood of oxytocin. 

A new projection was displayed at the center of the ship. Terry pulled away. It was a bright orange planet with yellow gaseous clouds and blobs of cerulean oceans at the heart of the hivemind territories. 

“New coordinates located,” Aisha announced. 

Korvo grabbed Terry by the shoulders. “What did you do!” 

“Are you kidding me? You’re kidding me, right? I was literally just making out with you two seconds ago!” 

Korvo sat down at the driver’s seat. “Aisha. Reset coordinates.” 

“Enter administration credentials,” she prompted. 

“What the—I never set a password for the shi— _ Terry! _ ” 

Terry groaned. “Stop yelling at me, already. You asked me to go to team leader orientation. That was  _ you.  _ I went, they made me team leader, and I got team leader privilege.” He scanned his finger on the scanning pad. 

“ _ Access denied. _ ” Beep, beep, beep. “Invalid credentials. Please enter administration credentials.” 

Terry wiped the sweat off of his hands on his robe, then scanned his finger again. 

“Access denied.” 

He slowly types in his password, this time: KorvosDildos. 

“Access denied.” 

“Terry, you idiot.” 

“Korvo, you’ve  _ gotta _ believe me, it was working just earlier. You were there!” 

Korvo hooked his pinky around Terry’s. 

“I believe you.” 

* * *

Yumyulack paced back and forth in the galley, stuffing his face with a protein bar. He and Jesse had been kicked out by the adults while they focused on rerouting the ship. The more he learned, the less he understood. He peeled the wrapper further and took another bite. He didn’t even like protein bars, but it was the only food ration that nobody else liked, either, which meant that it was at a surplus. The gray bar was chunky and chalky and tasted like meteor dust. The aqua-nutrient flavor was the worst, he quickly discovered. It didn’t matter while they were accelerating towards the hive mind territories, though.  _ Why  _ were they accelerating towards the hive mind territories? He just needed to stress-eat. 

Jesse was sitting at the table, sipping a juice box, and watched him roll over a whiteboard from the computer lab into the galley. He uncapped a green marker, drew a diamond, uncapped a pink marker, drew a teardrop, uncapped a red marker, and drew a heart. 

“Okay,” Yumyulack finally said. “First of all, why the  _ hell  _ are they still in love?” 

“I don’t think it’s love,” Jesse proposed. Like Yumyulack said, it was too early for them to have possibly developed feelings for each other. Even she wasn’t that quick in determining which classmate to crush on for the day. “I think they’re, like, friends with benefits.” 

“Ew.” He chucked the orange marker at Jesse, but missed by a longshot. “You’re nasty. Aren’t you too young to know what that means?” 

“Oh, grow up. You know it’s true.” 

“Ugh.” He wanted to bleach the image of their genetic originators’ tongue-fighting out of his mind. “You’re right.” He erased the red heart and drew a long, wriggly root coming out of a hole in its place. 

“Ew, don’t  _ draw _ it!” 

“Okay, shut up, I’ll erase it…” He replaced the genitalia with the letters “FWB”. “There. Okay. So, they’re allies. But something else is going on, too.” He drew a red box with the word “RESTRICTED” inside, a crude doodle of Vanbo’s face in purple with X’s for the eyes, and picked the orange marker off the ground to draw a lopsided oval with yellow swirls inside to represent the hive mind planet the ship was going towards. 

He took another bite of his protein bar. It tastes so awful. Why couldn’t he stop eating it? “Okay. So Terry went to ask Korvo about his restricted Shlorpipedia article, but emerged as his ally. They know something.” In red, he drew a circle around the heart, then an arrow poking out of the circle towards the “RESTRICTED” box. “And I still suspect that Korvo killed Vanbo.” He drew a green arrow from the diamond to Vanbo’s dead face. “But we’re being sabotaged by someone else trying to redirect the ship towards a hive mind-controlled planet!” He drew a question mark in black, then an arrow pointing it towards the yellow planet. 

Jesse stood up and erased the arrow from the green diamond to Dead Vanbo. “We don’t know for sure he killed Vanbo. We need to stick to the facts.” She drew a big circle around the question mark. “Whoever’s trying to sabotage us has access to the ship and has been messing with it without any of us realizing it.” She drew arrows pointing from the question mark to the red “RESTRICTED” box, the planet, and Dead Vanbo. 

“Wait a second.” Yumyulack has read these kinds of mysteries before. Mystery Genre Solving 101 was one of the GE’s he had to take back on Shlorp, while he was trying to pursue his bounty killer license. “That means whoever is trying to sabotage us must be on the ship with us.” 

Jesse nodded. “Let’s search.” 

* * *

Korvo was perched on the ship control deck’s keyboard, in the midst of passionately kissing Terry, all the while entering lines of gibberish into the terminal and triggering the annoying error notification beep. He swallowed the mixture of his and Terry’s saliva and moaned. Terry’s tongue ventured deeper into Korvo’s mouth. He spread Korvo’s legs and grinded their mounds together. Korvo moaned even louder. 

They simultaneously took a break to catch their breath. 

“We should probably get back to fixing the coordinates,” Korvo said. 

“Agreed.” 

Neither took the responsibility to heart. They went back to kissing. Terry started unbuttoning Korvo’s robe, but Korvo stopped him. “No, wait, we should really get back to fixing the coordinates.” He pushed Terry off of him and hopped off the control deck. He was reluctant to push the boundary any farther than kissing. Especially if Future Terry was going to make fun of him for getting fat. 

He sat at the driver’s seat and got to work on closing all the unnecessary apps he accidentally opened earlier. He was about to swipe the Photos application away until he caught a glimpse of Terry in a picture. He paused. That was definitely a picture of Terry taking a bathroom mirror selfie with his root out. “Terry! _Why_ are your nudes on the ship’s computer?” 

Terry smirked. “You like what you see?” 

“We have replicants, Terry. I’m deleting it.” He wasn’t going to think about how thick and supple Terry’s root was. No way. He was totally, definitely, absolutely not going to think of that. He was going to delete the picture, and that was going to be the end of that. 

As soon as the picture was sucked into the mini trash can icon, a video came up and played automatically. It was of Terry on his bed, robe fully unbuttoned, stroking his wet, shiny root up and down. Soft, deep groans played from the ship’s speakers. “Terry, you stupid slut. How many more of these do you have?” He answered his own question when he swiped to the photo gallery—the folder titled “Hot Terri/Terry Nudes” had 6,455 files. “I hate you.” 

“Well, stop looking if it’s so distracting!” Terry swiped the app away. “Aisha, override coordinate reset. Password: KorvosPink12InchVibrator.”

“Override denied,” Aisha replied. “Incorrect password.” 

Terry guessed again. “KorvosSiliconeDildo?” 

“Incorrect password.” 

“KorvosWaterBasedLube?” 

“Incorrect password.” 

It took all of Korvo’s restraint to not murder Terry right then and there. He wanted to reach for his pills so badly. “Terry, why are all your passwords related to my sex toys?” 

“So you’d have to admit you’re a kinky  _ freak _ if you ever wanted control of the ship.” 

Korvo hated that. But it was good to know that all of Terry’s passwords were predictable. “E-Enter override password…” His voice cracked. “KorvoNeedsToLoseWeight.”

“Incorrect password.” 

Terry grinned. “Good thinking, Korvo! Override password: KorvoNeedsToGoOnADiet.” 

This was painful for Korvo. 

“Incorrect password.” 

This was the definition of cruel and unusual punishment.

“KorvoNeedsToWorkOut,” Terry guessed.

Korvo wondered what he ever did to deserve this. Did he anger some kind of God? He must have. 

“Incorrect password.” 

Korvo wouldn’t wish this on his worst enemy. 

“KorvoIsFat.” 

Why, why, why?

“Incorrect password.” 

He was never going to eat again. 

“KorvoIsSoFatWhenHeSteppedOnTheScaleTheDoctorSaidHolyCrapThatsMyPhoneNumber.” 

Korvo ran out of the room, crying. 

* * *

Korvo sobbed to himself at the galley’s table, stuffing himself with protein bars. Dozens of wrappers littered the tiled floor. He hated Terry. He would never fall in love with Terry, not in a million deviant time streams! He also hated protein bars! Why did they have so many in the aqua-nutrient flavor? That was the  _ worst _ flavor. He hated himself for stress-eating. He could hardly taste anything, anymore. 

The door opened up, revealing Terry. “Korvotron—are you crying? Geez, how many of those gross protein bars have you eaten?” He spotted a freshly-empty prescription bottle on the table. The bottle was almost full last time he saw it. It wouldn’t be long until Korvo knocked out. He sat at the table next to Korvo. “Korvo. I  _ don’t _ think you’re fat.” He completely glossed over the messy drawings on the whiteboard with the huge, underlined word “INTRUDER”. 

Korvo tore open another protein bar. “F-F-Fu- _ Future Terry  _ does.” 

“I’m not Future Terry!” He snatched the protein bar out of Korvo’s hand. “And stop eating those! Why do you even care what Future Terry thinks? We’re literally trying to erase that timeline.” 

Korvo covered his face with his hands and wailed. “ _ FuchurChrrysthonwyonewholobzhme _ ,” he mumbled. 

“What?” 

Korvo peeked out of his hands at Terry, and much more clearly, whispered, “Future Terry’s the only one who loves me.” His vision was completely blurred. He couldn’t even see Terry, just a dim, bleary, impression of Terry’s form that he preferred over the real deal. He collapsed himself into the table, burying himself into a dark cave shielded by his arms. 

“I…” 

Terry stopped himself. That soft confession was louder than anything Korvo had ever screamed. This couldn’t be blamed on Future Terry or Past Terry or any other alternate version. The common denominator was him. He hurt Korvo and this was his consolation prize—his plan had worked. They weren’t in love with each other. 

Terry listened to Korvo’s repressed whimpers wracking his entire frame. Korvo was shaking. He felt so juvenile, so stupid and naive and uncouth, all without the shine of youthfulness. He felt like a mere replicant again, begging for his genetic originator back and dialing the number to the federal prison without calling and praying that he wouldn’t be next. Terry listened to Korvo cry until eventually the sobs were far in between and died off into a light snooze. 

Terry hooked his pinky around Korvo’s. 

“Aisha,” Terry commanded. “Enter override password: ILoveYouKorvo.” 

A low hum came out of the system. 

“Access granted.” 


	4. A Better Future

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korvo wakes up. He wakes up and stays awake—not with a shock, but with a whisper. He stops cowering the future by confronting the past. 
> 
> The four Shlorpians get on the same page.

The ship lurched to a halt, which knocked Yumyulack and Jesse off their feet. Yumyulack grumbled something about his left knee and a bad game of glorb-ball. He massaged the shooting pain. Jesse, the first to recover from the fall, offered her hand to Yumyulack. He accepted it without thinking and wouldn’t have thought any more of it, until Jesse smiled at him and said: 

“You’re welcome.” 

That pissed him off, obviously, because he did _not_ thank her and he never will. “Shut up.” He made a great show of rolling his eyes at her before slapping his hand down at a triangular button on a panel. The compartment revealed a rack of homemade ray guns with Korvo’s handwriting indicating the effects of the ray guns: Reverse Ray, Inverse Ray, Forget Ray, Forget Me Not Ray, Freezeray, Smart Ray, Dumb Ray. Yumyulack grabbed the closest one, the Anti-Gravity Ray, and shot it at one of Korvo’s boxes, his River Rocks Collection. The box floated to the ceiling. He then grabbed the Gravity Ray and shot it at the floating box, which reversed the effects of the previous ray gun and sent the box crashing down to the floor. 

Yumyulack marvelled at the Gravity Ray in his hand. “These are just as good as the Shlrop-Mart ray guns.” He took out his tiny screwdriver from his pocket and removed a panel from it to see the megeon-doped fiber amplifiers and delicate twisting of optical silica-glass fibers. “Damn, how’d he get access to all this megeon?” 

“Korvo and Terry are the top 1% of Shlorpians,” Jesse explained, looking over his shoulder. “That’s how they got picked for the mission. Korvo probably got access to everything in his lab on Shlorp.” 

“Really?” Yumyulack screwed the panel back onto the ray gun and returned it to its place on the rack. “I mean, Korvo, sure, but Terry?” 

“That’s what Terry told me.” 

“You believe everything he tells you?” Yumyulack scoffed. He recalled when Korvo tried telling him that the box of dildos were telescopes, as if he were a mere sapling. 

“I don’t know,” she confessed. She hadn’t yet learned how to disobey her superiors, but she was now understanding why she should question them. It unsettled her thinking that the one who brought her into the world may not be trustworthy. She couldn’t forget how Terry’s eyes sparkled when he first saw her, how he twirled her around and called her his own and immediately gave her the gift of an individual identity apart from a randomized number in a system. He didn’t hesitate to talk to her, actually talk _to_ her and not down at her. He was so eager to hear her voice. She couldn’t fathom his passionate, rambling vows to love and protect her being silver-tongued lies. 

It hurt her to see that Yumyulack was so easily desensitized to these suspicions about Korvo. Admiration wrapped in mistrust, appreciation strangled by skepticism—no pats on the head or affectionate praises. Not that Korvo was awake long enough for that. But even Korvo couldn’t hate the creation of his own flesh. Korvo named his replicant out of love, after his own genetic originator. 

“Do you still think that Korvo’s trying to hurt us?” Jesse asked him. She followed him down a corridor. Closely. The missing whirr of the engine made her hyper-aware of every footstep reverberating against the metal walls. Their out of rhythm footsteps competed for dominance in the echoes.

“He’s definitely not trying to _help_ us. All he does is sleep, yell, and make out with Terry.” He stopped, suddenly. “Wait. We’re not moving.” 

“Um, no doy. You just noticed?” 

That was… an unnecessary sarcastic comment. Jesse was _mean._ All on her own without any yelling from Yumyulack. But it’s not like Yumyulack was impressed with her, or anything. He was just relieved that she had an ounce of personality besides sunshine-friendship and lollipops and thank-yous. 

He continued leading her down the corridor, until they arrived at some kind of room with a heavy vault door in front. He gasped. “Is that…!” He yanked the door open and ran inside. Jesse followed behind him at a normal pace. “A Pretend-o-deck! This is _so_ freakin’ cool! This is going to be so convenient for our plans, we can just simulate everything in here!” 

Aisha’s voice prompted: “Enter administration credentials.” 

“ _Dammit!_ ” Yumyulack stomped his foot on the floor in frustration. 

“Incorrect password,” Aisha responded. 

Yumyulack groaned. “The intruder changed the password! There’s no way we’re going to guess it.” 

“But Terry and Korvo just guessed it, didn’t they?” Jesse argued. 

Yumyulack put a finger on his chin. “That’s true...” He bit on his tongue. The more they learned, the less he understood. He had to stick to the facts, though. “If I were an intruder that hacked the ship, I wouldn’t change the password to something that could be guessed. Genius masterminds wouldn’t make a mistake like that unless…” He gasped and turned around to face Jesse. “Unless they have a message! The password is some kind of message to Korvo and Terry! Whatever the password is, that’s the true intention of our intruder!” 

“That’s so hard to guess without some kind of hint.” 

Yumyulack nodded. “They know something. We just gotta think like them.” He was hoping that the Pretend-o-deck’s simulations could reenact possible scenarios in their mystery for them, but he had to work with what he had. “Okay, you pretend to be Korvo and I’ll pretend to be Terry and we’ll act like them.” 

“Why don’t we just act like our own genetic originators? We’re literally their clones.” 

“I don’t wanna be Korvo!” Yumyulack snapped. 

“... That sounds like something Korvo would say.” 

Yumyulack let out a strangled screech. “You’re _right_ , dammit!” He kicked a wall with his left leg, the bad one, and let the force of it shoot pain into his knee. “Even Korvo wouldn’t wanna be Korvo because Korvo is a disappointment!” He threw his hands into the air. “‘Oh, look at me, I’m Korvotron! I’m the smartest fucking Shlorpian in the galaxy but I’m too sad because my genetic originator is dead, so I’m going to overdose on sleeping pills every day instead of contribute anything worthwhile to the team! I named my replicant after my dead originator because I don’t actually give a shit about anyone besides him! I make out with Terry all the time because I’m a pathetic motherfucker and I need to fill the void with Terry’s big, fat root!’” He wrapped his arms around himself. “‘Mwah, mwah, mwah! Oh, Terry, I wanna fuck you so badly! I’m going to neglect my stupid replicant so I can kiss you some more! Mwah mwah! I _love_ you, Terry!’” 

“Access granted.” 

“ _Wait, what the hell?_ ” 

* * *

Korvo had no dreams to wake up from. None that he remembered, anyway. His consciousness was opened to the darkness behind his eyelids and the jarring jingle of a phone alarm. He hadn’t woken to an alarm clock in months. He resisted the natural instinct to open his eyes. His body was sore—dehydration—and his head was pounding—oversleeping—but he craved to be willfully ignorant more than he did to be alright. He was barely awake enough to feel two fingers pressed to his wrist. 

The alarm stopped, only for the sweet relief of silence to be quickly interrupted by another alarm. Added on was a new layer of noise, starting with a crackle of squeaks, then erupting into a full-blown screech. Hurried steps and shushing attempted to quell the screech. The alarm stopped. The crying continued. The shushing tried to drown out the crying, but was dominated by an exasperated sigh. A new alarm rang. There was a clanging of metal from a distance. 

Amidst the cacophony, a whisper triumphed: “Korvy.” 

Korvo’s eyes opened. “Yumyulack?” He rolled over, sickeningly hopeful to see him. Just one more time. Even if it was fake. 

“He’s with Jesse, somewhere,” Terry answered. He was cradling a crying Pupa, softly bouncing it in his arms. 

Korvo sat up. He was supposed to be waking up with an ache in his neck at the galley table. Terry must have moved him, again. That was kinda like time travel: falling asleep and waking up at a totally different time. He mused to himself that he was technically the Future Korvo compared to the past chapter in his life, the insomniac Past Korvo who still woke up to a dumb electrical shock.

Terry hushed the Pupa. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’ve got you. You don’t need to cry.” He hugged the shiny, slightly damp body. Korvo watched the Pupa snuggle into Terry’s chest, cries eventually tapering off. That plump little slug was disgustingly vulnerable. It had no survival instincts. It should’ve rejected Terry immediately; that kind of blind affection would have had it weeded out and incinerated if it were a Shlorpian. Terry, too, should have been repulsed by the Pupa’s neediness. He should not be comforting a biological weapon of planetary destruction. Pupas did not abide by Shlorpian standards, though. 

Korvo admired the softness of the light falling upon Terry’s smile and understood, now, why someone as unorthodox as Terry, who could not even conform to basic dress code policy or show up on time to meetings, was chosen for the mission. Korvo resisted the drowsiness in his muscles and approached his evacuation partner. He met Terry’s gaze and did not shy away from it, did not let the shakiness of his hands deter him from grasping onto Terry’s shoulders. He elevated himself, just a slight shift of weight so he could tip-toe a bit, and kissed Terry. Only a slow, gentle peck on the lips. 

Terry did not fear attachment because he did not fear loss. Korvo feared both, but he couldn’t stop himself from envying a future where he didn’t. 

As their lips parted and their hot breaths intertwined, Korvo released the strain in his calves and lowered himself. Tinnitus rang in his auditory canals like crickets in an eternal night, chirping at a pitch that not even a tuner could locate. Time felt like it was passing in lifetimes. His heart was pounding louder than the roar of the space atmosphere—or rather, lack thereof _—_ outside the ship. 

Terry shoved the Pupa into Korvo’s arms. “Take it. I’m tapping out, Korvo.” 

Korvo didn’t realize how moist a fresh Pupa was. “I don’t know how to take care of a Pupa.” The slime was thin, but evaporated quickly. The slug smelt of ballpoint pen ink. He was panicking, already. He couldn’t be responsible for another organism. He tried to support the head, because that’s all he learned from the TV shows about raising a Pupa. 

“Well, that makes two of us.” 

“ _You’re_ the Pupa Specialist!” 

“No, I was the team leader, pilot, caretaker of two replicants, co-conspirator in your weird time-fixing plan, _and_ the Pupa Specialist!” Terry went to Korvo’s pull-out bed, still warm, and sat down. “All you’ve done is sleep, yell, and develop a stupid crush on me!” 

“Th-That was _your_ plan!” Korvo reminded him. 

“Yeah! And it worked, right? Except it…” Terry groaned, then drop-kicked a pillow across the cockpit. “Except it didn’t!” 

“What are you—”

“ILoveYouKorvo,” Terry told him. “ _That_ was the password. Our future selves are still deeply in love and we haven’t changed shit. Actually, we’re probably falling right into ourselves’ evil plot.” 

Korvo dropped the Pupa. It fell to the floor with a big, fat, wet slap. That stupid slug was slippery. Terry didn’t flinch, though, and neither did the Pupa. 

“C… Come again?” 

“The override password was ‘ILoveYouKorvo’.” Terry made sure to be extra specific that he was reciting the override password and not confessing any form of romantic attachment towards his evacuation partner. 

“Repeat that one more time?” Korvo picked up the Pupa. “A little bit slower?” 

Terry knew what Korvo was doing. He sighed. “The password,” he said slowly, “is the phrase, ‘I love you, Korvo’. A confession of love. A declaration of adoration. A proposal, you might call it, to spend the rest of our short, brutish lives together in a terraformed paradise where we can hold hands and not worry about a strict authoritarian government waiting for us to blink the wrong way so that they could finally execute us. That is the password: I. Love. You. Korvo.” He could see a sparkle of tears welling up at Korvo’s eyes. “Is this the first time someone has said that, out loud, to you?” 

Korvo hugged the Pupa close to himself as he broke out into a sob. Suddenly, the slug’s moisture stopped bothering him. “That was—That was the last thing my genetic originator said to me before he was taken away.” He closed his eyes and remembered the door being busted down, the officers flooding in with Freezerays, the clatter of handcuffs behind his guardian’s back, but most of all, that smile so serene it belonged to someone on their deathbed, someone that knew their time was up and knew they didn’t regret a single second of it. Korvo became desperate for oxygen. None of his erratic gasps were enough to fill his lungs, so his breathing became shallower, faster, but still not enough. He reached for his pill bottle. 

“Hey, hey, Korvo, it’s okay!” Terry rushed up to Korvo. He took the Pupa out of Korvo’s arms and placed it on the floor for it to slither away into whatever crevice it wanted. “I don’t know what the hell happened to you, but it’s okay. Just breathe, nobody’s going to hurt you.” He took Korvo’s trembling hands in his. “No more pills. Just look at me. Let’s ride this out.” He noticed that Korvo wasn’t even gooblering: a symptom of drug dependence. 

Terry’s voice cut through his hyperventilation. Korvo looked up at him and forgot about the pills. He squeezed Terry’s hands with white knuckles. “Th-Th-Th-They’re going t-t-to take you a-away, too!” 

Terry stayed steady enough for the both of them. “They can’t. Remember?” He smiled. “They’re all gone. The government, your gene donor, Terri—they’re all gone!” He shouldn’t be laughing, but he was too sleep deprived at this point to care. Korvo’s constant sleeping pill overdoses gave him time to think, probably the most time to think he’s ever had in his life now that there was no booze around, and he had spent it looking through Terri’s nudes and remembering their vapid conversations about nothing. All those conversations, and not once did they talk about their inevitable fate to either die or be sent on a thousand-year mission into nowhere. “We’re doomed together.” He understood, now, that Terri never wanted to be saved. 

Korvo collapsed into Terry’s chest, accepting the embrace. He cried and screamed louder than his tinnitus. His fingers dug into the back of Terry’s robe deeper than his pain could reach. All the frustration, all the repression came pouring out of him. He screamed his throat raw enough to bleed. His genetic originator had loved Korvo with all his heart, and that was a crime on Shlorp. He had invested in Korvo on a planet where everything revolved around planned obsolescence. And he knew, he fucking knew that day would inevitably come and break his heart, but he risked it anyway for even a glance at a future founded on love. 

“I fucking hate Shlorp!” he screamed. His voice was scratchy and distorted by pure rage and at the loudest volume Korvo had ever used in his entire pathetic life. “I-I fucking hate it!” 

“Me too,” Terry admitted. But Terri didn’t. Terri loved Shlorp so much she chose to die with the rotten planet. 

“Every day, I was so busy with stupid bullshit! Every lunch, I stuffed myself full just so I could vomit it out later! Every night, I had to take those stupid fucking pills just to go to sleep and hope that I would wake up a little bit happier! But I didn’t. I never fucking _did!_ I was so goddamned miserable every fucking day, I tried so hard to delude myself, I tried jumping off a building but all they did was stop me! All they did was give me. _More. Fucking. Pills!_ ” He sobbed hard, but then lowered his voice to a whisper. “I just wanted someone to understand.” He rested his forehead on Terry’s chest. “I just wanted to be _attached_ without it hurting so much.” 

“I know,” Terry assured him. “I get it.” 

Korvo wouldn’t say that he loved Terry, at this point. Too confusing. But, finally, he realized that it only took one pair of eyes to feel seen. He had lived feeling like his woes were invisible and his defects over-scrutinized. Terry saw him for what he was: thorns and all. Petals and all. Korvo couldn’t stop himself from attaching to Terry like a parasite. 

The tears wouldn’t stop streaming down Korvo’s face and wetting Terry’s robe. “I know what that password means, Terry. It’s a surrender.” He closed his eyes again, and remembered the image of his genetic originator being shoved into a police van. “My future self—he gave up. He fell in love with whoever would take him and abandoned the mission.” 

Terry stroked the back of Korvo’s head. “Do you think it’s inevitable that we’ll fail the mission?” he asked. “Whatever we try to do, our future selves are just going to meddle even more.” 

Korvo pulled away and wiped his tears away. “No.” He understood the writing on the wall. It was a threat. _Abandon hope, or lose your only chance at love._ He had his answer. No more crying, no more pills, no more kissing—no, okay, maybe that could stay—but definitely, no more sleeping the day away. He wasn’t a prophet delivering the Word of God to a king. He knew, now, that love wasn’t the deciding factor in their future. It was him. It always had been. He was Korvotron, the smartest fucking Shlorpian in the goddamn galaxy, and he wouldn’t turn his back on his species like the government had turned its back on him. He had two replicants to care for, and those annoying-ass miniature clones of them needed to be back in the Shlorpian education system before they turned 95 and their stupidity was permanently cemented into their development cycle. “We’ll succeed.” 

Terry hooked their pinkies together. “Cross your heart?” 

Korvo smiled. “And hope to die.” 

* * *

Instead of cramming themselves on a half-twin-sized pull-out bed, Korvo had the bright idea of taking out two mattresses and laying them across the floor. Korvo had already bottle fed the Pupa a warm bottle of nutrient milk and left it with a chew toy in its crib, quiet and satisfied. Around them, the 360º projection showed them countless stars twinkling against the dark nothingness of space. The harder Korvo squinted, the more sparkling dots he could pick out, like tiny peepholes on a wall staring down at them. 

With Terry’s head resting on his chest, Korvo pointed out the bright summer colors of the hive mind territories, which only appeared to be slightly bigger stars from where they were. They took turns making up constellations that neither could decipher. Everything was a flower to Terry. Korvo’s favorite constellation, a _real_ one, was a great big oak tree that connected Dionesian and Heraclean stars to the majority of the Northern Quintanius stars. He named every star he could recognize and listed every fun fact he could remember. 

Hands held, Terry told Korvo about how he only saw his gene donor once, at the grocery store in his second year at the academy. Terry had recognized his gene donor’s gem from a picture he got from Shlorpipedia and called out to his gene donor by name. It was obvious his gene donor recognized him, but the bastard just sneered, told Terry that he was a disappointment to his bloodline, and took the last Dupatia-flavored lattice essence from the shelf. Korvo admired that taking the last lattice essence was Terry’s largest annoyance at the time. Terry had taken his risk, failed spectacularly, and gone home with the store brand lattice essence. 

When it came to discussing where to set their coordinates, Korvo had to confess that he never learned how to pilot a ship. He was, ironically, too busy learning every other aspect of the ship in case of a particularly bad meteor shower. He made the fatal mistake of assuming that Shlorp’s GPS technology was perfect, and it was, but he wouldn’t have guessed that the star maps were so severely outdated. Terry argued that it was fine, especially since there were few obstacles to dodge in space, and that even Jesse could fly the ship. He drifted off to sleep, hugging Korvo, in the middle of a lecture about orbital resonances. 

Korvo stopped talking when he was cut off by a sudden snore. He looked down at Terry’s sleeping face, squished against his chest, and hesitantly brushed his knuckles against Terry’s cheek. He wondered if Terry could hear how loud and fast his heart was pounding, partly from his pill dependence, partly from the fluttering of butterflies from their intimacy. They had decided that falling in love never mattered—it was probably inevitable in the first place—and Terry had even suggested scrapping his previous plan and falling in love on purpose to get closer to the future that would eventually meddle with their past selves and see their true purpose. Korvo didn’t want their relationship to be subservient to some notion of predetermination, though. Yet, as he relished in Terry’s warmth, he wondered how much of anything was his choice with so much forced at him. It was a thought difficult to linger on when he was distracted by the slow rise and fall of Terry’s chest under the thin, starchy white blanket covering both of them. 

He gently transitioned Terry off of him and kissed Terry on the cheek before heading to the galley. While he started on a pot of coffee, he scooped up the piles of nutrient bar wrappers and placed them in the compost compressor. The awful handwriting on the whiteboard kept drawing his eye. He had a feeling it was Yumyulack’s handwriting, from the way previous diagrams and pictures were lazily erased, black all-caps letters over faded outlines of what looked like a heart, a dead Vanbo, and Korvo and Terry’s gemstones. Korvo sprayed the alcohol solution on the whiteboard and erased the contents. The black ink ran down the board in long streams, which were quickly wiped clean by the yellow microfiber cloth. 

“Intruder, huh?” Korvo said aloud. Yumyulack really was his offspring, after all. The kid had already figured out that an external force was manipulating their mission. He had been stalking Yumyulack’s academic profile closely—not too hard since the academy hadn’t changed their passwords since it was founded—and was disturbed to see that his replicant had chosen to be a bounty hunter, of all things. It was the most useless profession on Shlorp, in Korvo’s opinion. Their species had already been endangered for several planet cycles, and bounty killers were hired to make it even smaller. Obviously illogical. There was hope in the slightly above average grades in Yumyulack’s life science classes, but the spikes in good scores were, disturbingly, whenever a dissection was involved. 

Sociopath or not, Korvo was obligated to check on his brat at least twice a day. After oversaturating his coffee with sugar, he set out to find Yumyulack and Jesse. He followed the trail of his boxes that were clearly rummaged through, down the corridors, past the sanitizing stalls, until the sound of Jesse’s laughter led him to the Pretend-o-Deck. Like any loving guardian would do, he only gave two knocks as warning before barging in. 

Principal Stuls was on a unicycle, balancing a stack of textbooks on his head while juggling multi-colored balls. Jesse and Yumyulack stared back at Korvo in horror, but Korvo was distracted by Principal Stuls’ dead eyes gazing down at him. 

“I see, now,” Principal Stuls told Korvo. “I see the future.” 

Even on a unicycle with a stack of textbooks balanced on his head while juggling multi-colored balls, Korvo was still unnerved by Principal Stuls. “Terminate program, Aisha,” he ordered. 

“Enter password,” Aisha prompted. 

Korvo realized that he didn’t know the general password for the ship. He only knew the override password, which bypassed protocol restrictions. The replicants had figured it out before him and Terry. 

“Enter password…” Yumyulack tried to make it as obvious as possible that he was only reciting a password and not declaring any kind of romantic attachment. “... ILoveYouTerry.” He did not love anyone. Love meant getting attached, then eventually being betrayed. 

“Password accepted.” 

Principal Stuls glitched out of existence. His eyes were the last to fade away. 

“That’s a stupid password, you know,” Yumyulack said. “Way too easy to guess. But that’s what you wanted, right? Or should I say…” He smirked. “... future you?” 

Korvo sipped his coffee. Yumyulack was his replicant, after all—a master of suspicion. “Something like that. Are you two hungry?” 

Yumyulack expected his victory to be glorious. He was hoping Korvo would have dropped his coffee mug, sending a shock wave of porcelain shards and hot caffeine out. He was braced for a wave of righteous fury, maybe something like, _You don’t know what you’re talking about, stay out of this, you meddling brat!_ And Yumyulack was supposed to remain cool and composed while he walked Korvo through his thought process, where he would connect all the dots into the big picture that depicted Korvo’s undeniable guilt. 

Now? Yumyulack just felt embarrassed. He had accused his own gene donor of time travel shenanigans, and all Korvo cared about was feeding them. The worst part of it was that he _was_ hungry. 

Yumyulack looked away. “Y-Yeah.” 

“I’m starving,” Jesse said. 

Korvo patted his replicant’s head, a lazy imitation of the affectionate gesture he used to receive from his own genetic originator when he was younger. He was probably patting too hard, but his fingers were shaky and numb, so he couldn’t tell. “Come along, replicants. I’ll make lunch.” It was probably nowhere near lunchtime in Shlorpian time, but there was no time zone in space. 

Yumyulack and Jesse followed Korvo to the galley. Yumyulack felt humiliated. This Korvo, who was awake and compassionate and, ugh, _fatherly_ (he only knew that word from a foreign language course he took at the academy. Shlorp had only one language, as all utopic planets should, to promote unity, so Shlorpians had to learn languages from other quadrants of the galaxy) wasn’t the diabolical evil genius Korvo he had antagonized himself against in his mind. Jesse subtly bumped her shoulder against Yumyulack and gave a small smile, an _I told you so_ that Korvo was never trying to hurt them. Yumyulack responded with an extra aggressive bump back. 

When they reached the galley, Yumyulack noticed the whiteboard was wiped clean and all the markers were picked up and capped and lined up in ROYGBIV order on the whiteboard ledge. Clearly, Korvo’s doing. To Yumyulack, it was a microaggression. He never was able to handle the “kill them with kindness” counterattack. He and Jesse sat themselves down next to each other at the table. 

Korvo set his mug down at the counter and began perusing through the cabinets to find anything not spoiled and not instant. “We have…” He picked up a box. “... nutrient mush.” 

“Ew,” Yumyulack said. “Why don’t you just time travel back to Shlorp and bring us back some Adnap Express?” 

“You can’t time travel in space.” Korvo read more labels: spicy bio-loaf, smoked gamma-gamon, luna-protein, oxo-hexagons, the synthesizer’s best “tasty” meatfish, authentic neo-nuts… He could work with that. For once in his life, he was grateful for his past self, who had the decency to freeze some fruits and vegetables. 

Jesse couldn’t handle the suspense, anymore. “Korvo, I don’t get it. Why is your future self trying to sabotage the mission?” 

Korvo sighed, then sat at the table across from the replicants. He wouldn’t keep them in the dark, not like his genetic originator did to him. Maybe he would fail anyway, but it was better to fail a different way than repeat the same cycle. “When two Shlorpians love each a lot—” 

“Ew!” Yumyulack cried. “Is this the sex talk? I don’t wanna hear the sex talk from you! Just give us a brochure, or something.” 

“You dirty-minded little…” Korvo composed himself. “This _isn’t_ the sex talk. If you want to know about that, ask Terry.” 

“Oh, yeah, of course we should ask Terry,” Yumyulack said. “He must be the real sex expert, huh?” 

Jesse covered her face. She regretted starting the conversation. 

“No, he’s a Pupa Expert,” Korvo said, “but he’s still a biologist.” 

Yumyulack finally relented. Korvo started over. 

“When two Shlorpians love each other a lot, it makes everything else seem so small.” He thought of Terry’s smile, how he always grinned so wide without coming off as insincere. “It’s because the universe is always trying to make you feel small—just another number in the system, just another cog in the machine, just another Shlorpian sacrificing your life in pursuit of feeling like you’re part of something glorious. You worship so many false idols, slave away at meaningless busywork, and dedicate your life to contributing to the greatest utopia in the galaxy.” 

Korvo had the replicants’ undivided attention, now. 

“One day,” Korvo said, as gently as he could put it, “you’ll realize that it all ends. Our planet is gone—you two probably understand that, though I don’t think you’ve been alive long enough to really feel its disappearance. But even if you find someone to love, that will end, too.” He wondered how Terry was able to bear the loss of his lifemate. At a glance, it never looked like it bothered Terry, but Korvo could feel Terry’s yearning for his lost love in their kisses. It had occurred to Korvo that Terry’s experience in kissing all came from his lifemate. “No matter what makes you feel big or small, it all ends.” 

Jesse fiddled with the hem of her sleeve. “Do you think it’s meaningless to love something that’s lost?” she asked. Her head was bowed down, a pathetic attempt to conceal the droplets falling onto the table. “Whatever we try to do…” Her voice cracked, then devolved into a high-pitched whisper. “... it'll just hurt even more!” 

Korvo reached over and wiped her tears away. “No.” It was his first time truly looking at her eye to eye, analyzing her features, and seeing that Terry was right. Jesse really was cute. Instead of updating him on his whereabouts when Korvo was furiously texting him the day of planetary destruction, Terry had spammed Korvo with a hundred pictures of Jesse. Korvo was only able to sneak a picture at just the right moment of Yumyulack sneezing, which, creepily, was uploaded to Yumyulack’s Shlorpipedia article immediately. “It has meaning.” 

“How do you know?” Yumyulack asked. His arms were crossed. He didn’t understand whatever Korvo was prattling off about—no, he _refused_ to understand, but underneath his hardened facade, Korvo saw that Yumyulack wanted to. 

“Because we live for a better future.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been so choked up with stupid school (a vicious cycle of me sleeping through my lectures and desperately trying to catch up on the recorded lectures last minute). Sometimes I lose sight of why I loved writing this fanfic so much, but in these awful New Times (haha lol out loud you see what I did there) I must return to my love of writing. 
> 
> I look at the themes of this fanfic and it helps me reconcile some chaos in my personal life. As miserable as I get, I will never give up. That is my ninja way!! 
> 
> I think I probably chose the wrong major, but that's okay! There is no need to gatekeep "hard" majors. Toxic science majors will tell you you'll kill your patients every time you do bad on an assessment. It's BS. Anyone can learn anything, no matter how many attempts it takes. Anyone can create a better future at any point in their lives. We have evolved past the need for "perfectionism". You think every artist strives to be photorealistic? Hell no. The goal is to be as human as possible. Don't let people tell you what your "best" is to them—they don't even exist on the same goddamn fucking plane as you, my comrades. 
> 
> My fanfictions serve as a reflection of myself. I am Narcissus in the lake when I reread my works. All I want to communicate is that all your attempts and misses and wrong answers HAVE MEANING. You will lose, but that has meaning too. It's okay to fail and I will keep failing and keep proving that!


End file.
